Encyclopedia of Islam

Satanic Verses

  

605  J

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sparked a controversy of global proportions. It 

aggravated relations between Muslims and non-

Muslims, as well as between pious Muslims and 

secular ones, since Rushdie was himself a Muslim 

more by heritage than conviction. The book was 

not so much about Muhammad and the Satanic 

Verses incident per se, but it did contain passages 

that were interpreted to be blasphemies against 

the Prophet and his wives. Demonstrations against 

the book irrupted in Bradford, England (January 

14, 1989), Bombay, Islamabad, p

akistan

 (Febru-

ary 12), and i

ndia

 (February 24). In i

ran

, a

yatol

-

lah

  r

Uhollah

 k

homeini

 issued a 

FatWa

 (advisory 

ruling based on the 

sharia

) on February 14, 1989, 

that called for his death. Khomeini exploited the 

incident to revitalize Iranian popular support for 

his revolutionary government, which was just end-

ing a long, costly war with Iraq. He may also have 

been personally offended by derogatory passages in 

Rushdie’s book that talk about a puritanical “

imam

,”

Khomeini himself. As a consequence, Rushdie was 

forced to go into hiding for nearly 10 years. Kho-

meini died in 1989, but the fatwa was reaffirmed by 

the Iranian government in 2005. Rushdie, mean-

while has kept busy with writing more novels and 

making numerous public appearances.

See also 

blasphemy

; 

goddess

; 

tafsir

.